updated 09:26 pm EDT, Fri May 17, 2013

Withdrawal filed to not burden combined company with pending suit

In a court motion filed earlier today, MetroPCS is dropping its net neutrality opposition lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission. The company filed a motion for voluntary dismissal, leaving Verizon to willingly fight the decree and US government on its own.

The carriers claimed that the FCC overstepped its bounds with the new rules, which on wireless networks require allowing any legal app and traffic and also require transparency on any throttling or other network management techniques. Supporters of the rule have noted that they more likely wanted to reserve the right to ban apps and traffic that were competitive with their own businesses. MetroPCS went so far as to make its case even as it was directly violating the rules by blocking Skype and charging extra to access Netflix.

MetroPCS filed the motion for dismissal as to not burden its upcoming merger with T-Mobile with the lawsuit, which would transfer to the combined company, in much the same way that Google acquired Motorola Mobility's smartphone patent lawsuits.